Merry Christmas from The Underground

Merry Christmas everyone – 25/12/2013

Are the tables starting to turn? | A view from around the world

By Leon J Williams

A look at the news from around the world shows a clear sign, the people have had enough!

The people are fed up of having their lives dictated to them, being told who they can have sex with, who they can marry, if they can drink alcohol, where they taxes will be spent. The people are fed up of being beaten for expressing their right to free speech.

Enough is enough.

Turkey

The situation in Turkey continues as the anti-government protests evolve into the ‘Standing Man’ civil disobedience. The Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeming losing the plot with his delusional public rants. Germany has started to stand in the way of Turkey’s EU bid because of the heavy handed police abuse much to Tayyip’s annoyance. Like any dictatorship there is heavy control and regulation of the media with more crackdowns on social media to come.

Greece

Greece’s already fragile coalition government has taken a blow as the Democratic Left Party pulls out over the closure of the national broadcaster ERT. The shock sudden closure caused protests from both the left and the right wing.

Brazil

Over a million people (possibly 2 million) took to the streets in cities all over Brazil after transport fares increased dramatically. The people are angry at widespread corruption and the cost of the upcoming football world cup. No money to keep transport costs down but plenty of money for football stadiums.
Such is the scale of the protests that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is holding an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the country’s most widespread unrest in two decades.

Daily Headline – 18/05/13

Afghan Muslims stop ban on violence against women

15 minutes into the debate by Afghan politicians on whether or not to ban violence against women and ‘angry scenes’ stopped the proceedings.

Back in 2009 Afghan MP’s opposed a law being passed to ban violence against women, child marriages and forced marriages however the bill was passed by President Karzai using his ‘Presidential decree’.

The BBC quotes:

During the debate, mullahs and other traditionalist MPs accused President Karzai of acting against Islamic Sharia law by signing the decree in the first place, the BBC’s David Loyn reports from Kabul.

In particular, they demanded a change to the law so that men cannot be prosecuted for rape within marriage, our correspondent said.

Islam/Sharia law/religion = a pile of shit

Daily Headline – 16/05/13

A day of Islam…

Today, like many days, the world news is dominated by Islam and as usual, for all the wrong reasons.

Egypt

Islamist gunmen kidnap seven Egypt security personnel in Sinai and demand that jailed militants are released in exchange for the men.

Iraq

Sectarian violence strikes again as bombings kill 17 in Baghdad and more shooting occurring in the north.

Iran

Iranian government wants talk with world leaders over its nuclear program in what some suspect will only be a case of unreasonable demands as they try to blackmail the west.

Syria

Islamist rebels execute 11 Syrian soldiers for “massacres” carried out by the military.

Afghanistan

15 foreigners are killed (6 of which were American) after a suicide car bombing in Kabul.

Yemen

Austrian man Dominik Neubaur was forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint after he was kidnapped.

Daily Headline – 15/05/13

France back in recession

France is back in a recession, the second time in 4 years as Socialist Party leader and President Francois Hollande comes under further criticism.

The capitalists would have you believe that a successful country is not one with the best/highest standards of living but one with the highest GDP. It is under such a guise that Socialism is deemed a failure.

Pseudo-Socialist parties and leaders don’t help the cause by going along with capitalism under a red banner, making the left look like failures.

This is the problem in France, they have a quasi Socialist government integrated into a capitalist Europe and European Union. France implements policies that try to improve conditions for the working class and make a fairer society and as a result ‘business confidence’ takes a big knock, the economy stumbles and the electorate think the ruling party are useless and vote them out only to return the previous lot of incompetent politicians.
So the never-ending cycle continues.

So what’s the answer?

Well that depends if you want the short-term or the long-term answer.

In the short term, stick with Hollande and the Socialists and screw ‘business confidence’. Maybe if we ignore the markets, they’ll go away!

In the long term capitalism must come to an end for real positive change to take place and it can’t be restricted to one country, stick with the European Union and together a socialist Europe will lead to real, genuine prosperity.

Daily Headline – 12/05/13

Conservative Lord Young: exploit cheap labour

The prime minister’s adviser on enterprise Lord Young has told the cabinet that the economic downturn is an excellent time for new businesses to boost profits and grow because labour is cheap.

Instead of trying to improve conditions for workers the ruling coalition is focusing on the positive side to recession, cheap labour and as we all know, cheap labour is good for business and good for profits.

If ever there was a clear sign of the governments callous attitude towards the working class and their lust for profits over people here it is.
Only business owners should be voting for the coalition, anyone else is voting against their own interests.

Conservative = Scum

Daily Headline – 08/05/13

Stephen Hawking joins Israel boycott

Stephen Hawking has pulled out of a major conference in Israel, respecting the academic boycott in place over the treatment of Palestine and Palestinians.

The invitation was for the annual president’s conference entitled ‘Facing Tomorrow’. The conference features major international personalities and attracts thousands of participants. This years conference has particular significance as it will be President Peres’s 90th birthday.

The Guardian said:

Hawking’s decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.

In April the Teachers’ Union of Ireland became the first lecturers’ association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.

In typical fashion, the Israelis have responded by call Hawking an anti-Semite on his facebook page.

With Israel, anyone who disagrees with their illegal occupation of Palestine and murder of Palestinians is an anti-Semite!

Israel, fuck off!

Daily Headline – 07/05/13

Under-5 children in the US 3 times more likely to die than in Iceland

Save the Children has released its annual report on mothers and children. The report looks at the likelihood of death in pregnancy or labour as well as the difficulties women face when they become mothers, comparing country to country.

The US sits at a predictably low 30th with the report stating:

“A woman in the U.S. is more than 10 times as likely as a woman in Estonia, Greece or Singapore to eventually die from a pregnancy related cause.”

“In the United States, the under-5 mortality rate is 7.5 per 1,000 live births. This is roughly on par with rates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar and Slovakia. At this rate, children in the U.S. are three times as likely as children in Iceland to die before their 5th birthday.”

The top 9 best countries are of course all European states with Australia rounding off the top 10:

1) Finland
2) Sweden
3) Norway
4) Iceland
5) Netherlands
6) Denmark
7) Spain
8) Belgium
9) Germany
10) Australia

Turkey and Romania are the let downs of Europe coming in at 60th & 61st respectively.

Other notable countries are:

23) UK
30) US
33) Cuba
59) Russia
68) China
176) DR Congo (last)

Full list can be found here.

Daily Headline – 05/05/13

7 US troops killed in Afghanistan

Yesterday saw 7 US troops killed in Afghanistan which follows 3 British troops killed 5 days ago. Two US soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier and the rest appear to have been killed by land-mines/roadside bombs.

There seems like no end to the Afghan war despite the casualty list on the ‘allied’ side in 2013 set to be the lowest since 2004. It’s not always easy to to know the impact of such deaths on the general public of the US and UK but their respective electorate must be getting fed up of seeing ‘their boys’ returning in flag-laden coffins.

Spot on casualty figures are hard (impossible) to get especially if you try to take into account the civilian casualties of war.

Costs of War put the current civilian casualty list at somewhere below 20,000 (that’s from start to now, 2001-2013). However the Guardian reckon up to 20,000 could have been killed just in the first 4 months!

According to iCasualties so far there have been 2215 US military fatalities, 444 UK military fatalities and 640 other military fatalities.

As the war continues, so do the fatalities.

Daily Headline – 04/05/13

65 year old woman “a danger to the American government”

FBI special agent Aaron Ford has labelled 65 year old Joanne Chesimard (aka Assata Shakur) as “a danger to the American government”.

Joanne (a black liberation activist) who now lives in Cuba has served 2 years in prison already in the US for her role in the shooting of a US cop 40 years ago.

That’s right people, we all knew the US government was weak and now it’s confirmed, even a 65 year old woman living in a 3rd world country represents a danger to them.

Joanne’s real claim to fame though is that now she is the first woman ever to be on the FBI’s most wanted list!